Turkey in the International System

IPC-Stiftung Mercator Fellowship at SWP

Turkey is an indispensable partner for Europe's Foreign and Security Policy. The IPC-Mercator Fellowship program at SWP aims at closing gaps in the research on Turkey and strives to enrich the political debate on Turkey and its region at the German and the European level. The program invites academics from Turkey or with close working relations to Turkey to conduct research while being actively involved in policy consulting. So doing, the IPC-Stiftung Mercator Fellows gain insight in policy making in Germany and Europe.

Current Fellows

Dr. T. Deniz Erkmen is Assistant Professor at the Department of International Relations at Ozyegin University in Istanbul, Turkey. Her research interests include authoritarianism, emergency rule, protests and protest repression, globalization, cosmopolitanism and middle classes with a focus on Turkey and Middle East. Her research has appeared in numerous peer-reviewed academic journals. She has also published various op-ed pieces (in Turkish and English) in venues such as Open Democracy and Bianet.

Can Kasapoğlu is a War Studies and Security Studies scholar and defense analyst. He was Visiting Fellow at several think thanks including the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA) in Israel and the Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique (FRS) in France. From 2015 to 2016, Can Kasapoğlu was a Visiting Research Fellow at the NATO Defense College in Italy. He worked as a Visiting Scholar in the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense College in Italy. His research interests focus on strategic weapon systems with a special focus on chemical & biological warfare, missile proliferation and missile defense, hybrid warfare, NATO’s collective defense and cooperative security issues, Turkish and Israeli relations, global and regional military modernization trends and geopolitics.

Former Fellows

Dr. Sinem Adar IPC-Stiftung Mercator Fellow 08/2017 - 12/2018

Dr. Sinem Adar is an IPC-Mercator Fellow at the German Institute for International Affairs and Security (SWP) during the period 08/2017-09/2018. She has previously held postdoctoral research positions in Germany and the US. Her research interests include minority politics, particularly in the Middle East, nationalism, migration and populism. Her research has appeared in peer-reviewed academic journals and edited volumes. Dr. Adar has also published op-ed pieces (in English and Turkish) that appeared at Jadaliyya, Al Jazeera English, Muftah and Bianet.

Aysen Üstübici is an Assistant Professor at Koc University Department of Political Science and Department of Sociology. Her areas of interest are international migration, irregular migration, social and public policy, informal labour market and gender studies. Her book “The Governance of International Migration: Irregular Migrants’ Access to Right to Stay in Turkey and Morocco”. (University of Amsterdam) is in print. The book compares irregular migration regimes from the perspective of state and non-state actors and their impact on migrant incorporation in Turkey and Morocco. She is currently conducting two research projects; one on local integration of urban refugees in Istanbul and one on the wider impact of externalization of border policies. She has published articles in journals like Geopolitics, new perspectives on Turkey, Migration and Development.

Dr. Arzu Yilmaz

IPC-Stiftung Mercator Fellow 08/2016 - 10/2018

Dr. Arzu Yilmaz is the Chair of the Department of Politics and Public Policy at the American University of Kurdistan. She is an IPC-Mercator Stiftung fellow at German Institute for International Affairs and Security (SWP) for 2016/2017. She previously served as a lecturer at the University of Duhok in the Department of Political Science. Her research interests include Kurdish Question, Middle East Politics, Migration/Refugee, Nationalism and Gender. She is the author of the book entitled “Atrus’tan Maxmur’a: Kürt Mülteciler ve Kimlgin Yeniden Insasi” (From Atrus to Maxmur: Kurdish refugees (from Turkey) and the new construction of Identity), Iletisim Yayinlari, Istanbul, 2016. Dr. Yilmaz has published frequently as a columnist for the Turkish daily addition Radikal 2, and Birikim focusing on the Kurds and Middle East politics.

Dr. Ioannis N. Grigoriadis is Associate Professor and Jean Monnet Chair of European Studies at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Bilkent University and Research Fellow at the Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP). He has taught at British, Greek and Turkish universities and has held research positions in Germany, Greece and the United Kingdom. His research interests include European and Middle Eastern politics, nationalism, energy and democratisation. He has authored two books, “Trials of Europeanization: Turkish Political Culture and the European Union” (London & New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009) and “Instilling Religion in Greek and Turkish Nationalism: A ‘Sacred Synthesis’” (London & New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). His research work has appeared in numerous academic journals. He also has been a columnist for the Greek daily Kathimerini and for the Turkish daily Taraf.

Alida Vračić JD IPC-Stiftung Mercator Fellow 08/2015 - 12/2016

Alida Vračić is the director and co-founder of Populari, a think tank established 2007 in Sarajevo. Prior to this, she worked with the European Stability Initiative (ESI) in Istanbul on judicial and economic issues of Turkey in the frame of Turkey’s EU membership process. At the Human Rights Centre of Sarajevo University she run Balkan-wide projects in the fields of justice and judiciary, the institution of the ombudsman and the role of bar associations. She also worked for the State Court Prosecutor's team at the Human Rights Commission within the Constitutional Court of Bosnia-Hercegovina.

Dr. Zülfukar Çetin IPC-Stiftung Mercator Fellow 10/2014 - 09/2015

Dr. Zülfukar Çetin is currently a lecturer at the Alice Salomon Hochschule. Additionally he acts as elected member of the Migration Council (RfM) Berlin and of the Federation of Turkish Associations in Berlin and Brandenburg (TBB). Prior to his Fellowship at SWP he did research in close cooperation with Sabanci University Istanbul. During his Fellowship he was invited by the (German) Federal Agency for Family and Civil Society (BAFzA) to act as expert witness in the realms of right wing extremism, racism, Islamophobia and antisemitism.

Dilek Kurban JD IPC-Stiftung Mercator Fellow 04/2013 - 09/2014

Dilek Kurban at time is a Marie Curie Follow at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin and a member of the European Commission’s Network of Independent Experts in the Non-Discrimination field. She is currently researching the European human rights law regime and the role of the European Court of Human Rights in protracted ethno political conflicts. Prior to her Feollowship at SWP, Kurban served as the Director of the Democratization Program at the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV).

Dr. Yaşar Aydın IPC-Stiftung Mercator Fellow 04/2013 - 09/2014

Dr.Yaşar Aydın is currently lecturer at the Hafen City University Hamburg and the Protestant University of Applied Sciences Hamburg (Das Rauhe Haus). Prior to his Fellowship at SWP, Aydin was a researcher at the Hamburg Institute for Social Resarch (HIS) an a lecturer at Hamburg University. Prior to his fellowship at SWP he worked at the Hamburgisches WeltWirtschaftsInstitut, (Hamburg Institute of International Economics) in a project dealing with the topic »Migration of highly educated people with a turkish origin from Germany to Turkey” and cooperted with on a regular basis with Antalya University.